Hearing Tues. On Delivery Bikes; Local Crime Soars; Development Update

April 10, 2018

Reckless Delivery Bikes are a hazard to public safety. Previous attempts to make commercial bikes follow rules and get off our sidewalks have failed. But there’s a hearing this Tuesday night at 7 PM at the Community Board. See article. In other news, neighborhood crime is rising, led by felony assaults. See the link for the 24th Precinct crime stats. Also an update on the boom in residential development.

Electronically-powered bicycles used to deliver restaurant orders are creating chaos and mayhem throughout the Upper West Side.

Delivery people are riding without lights, often going against traffic, making dare-devil maneuvers in traffic and driving their motorized vehicles on sidewalks, aided by sidewalk curb cuts designed for the disabled.

Now you can do something! On Tuesday, April 10th, Community Board 7 is holding a hearing at 7 PM, 250 West 87th Street, 2nd floor.

Commercial bikes are the first order of business for a joint meeting of the Transportation Committee and the Business Committee. Show up, sign up to speak!

The Board is considering proposals for enforcing laws on delivery bikes which now hurtle down narrow sidewalks and frequently go the wrong way or engage in reckless maneuvers in traffic.

Last October, the Mayor announced a crackdown. In the past six months, the City has occasionally confiscated delivery bikes, only to return them within days.

Street Crime UP 1st Quarter 2018 Felony Assault Up 125% In Past Two Years

Key categories of street crime in the 24th Precinct surged during the first three months of 2018 versus the same quarter period in 2017. This reflects a disturbing upward trend in most crime categories in our Upper West Side neighborhood over the past two years.

From January through March, Robbery rose 53.8%, while the number for the past two years was up 42.9%.

Felony assault (intentionally or recklessly causing injury to another person, or criminally negligent with a weapon), is up 32.4%, and up 125% in the past 24 months.

Petit larceny is up 24.5% in the first quarter of 2018; up 50.4% over the past two years. Misdemeanor assault was up 9.8% in the first quarter, and 1.5% over the past two years.

One bright spot in the numbers was GLA (grand larceny auto), which dropped 28.6% thus far in 2018; it is also down 16.7% the past two years.

However, since the beginning of the year there have been two shooting incidents; during all of 2017, there were none.

A story by RealDeal reporter Mark Maurer last month reported that Certes Partners, in partnership with United Management and United executive Meir Bouskila, obtained a $71.5 million construction loan for its 19-story condominium project at 212 West 95th St.

Goldman Sachs provided the construction financing for the 38-unit residential building at which will rise in place of the troubled former single-room-occupancy hotel Camden Resident Hotel on the site. The developers broke ground in March and plan to complete construction by early 2020. Certes and United acquired the hotel for $15 million in 2014 and then the garage next door for $26 million the following year. Both structures have since been demolished. Certes is led by Elan Hakimian, Eitan Bouskila and Sunder Jambunathan.

The 100,000-square-foot 95th Street project will also have retail and garage components.

“We don’t compete with other projects. Our competitor is the suburbs,” Jambunathan said. “We have worked hard to create a residence which compels people and families to stay in the city, and which attracts empty nesters to return.”

Meir Bouskila, who runs United with Arthur Wiener, owns several multifamily buildings on the side and recently launched his own firm Metropolitan Acquisitions, which has a stake in the project.

CetraRuddy and RKTB Architects are designing the project, and Reuveni Real Estate is handling sales and marketing. Zevi Schwartz of Black Wolf Capital brokered the financing.